Time to Rake

Fall leaves are beautiful set against a blue sky on a crisp Autumn day, but once they hit the ground, the work begins

It seems like Thanksgiving is the last bastion of summer, with fall coming on full force as soon as the smell of turkey has drifted off on the autumn breeze. Local trees are hitting their glorious best, with colours of orange, red and yellow dominating the leafy landscape. You know what that means, don’t you?

It’s time to rake!

What to do with Fallen Leaves

As all those leaves fall to the ground, they have a nasty habit of piling up all over your lawn.  While you could leave them as fertilizer, sometimes the layer is just too thick for your tender grass to handle. As the sun sinks further and further south, we receive less and less of its essential rays. Your grass needs those rays too. When leaves cover the lawn, not only does it prevent sunshine from reaching the grass, but it also decreases the amount of water and other nutrients that it needs. Those leaves also create a breeding ground for fungi and insects to thrive. For anyone that covets the state of their green expanse, that means that raking leaves is more than just an exercise in aesthetics – it is a necessary evil.

So how do you go about eradicating leaves from your lawn? If you are the proud owner of a leaf blower, you can blow all those leaves into the neighbour’s yard. Oops, I mean into nice little piles! You will still have to remove those piles though. That requires either moving them into your composter or into yard waste bags to be collected by the city. Some leaf blowers also have a sucking and/or shredding option to help in the cleanup department.

If you haven’t put your lawn mower away yet, you could run over some of those leaves and mince them into mulch where they rest. Of course, depending upon how thick they are, you still might have to remove them from your lawn afterwards.

The old-fashioned rake is also an option too. While it might require a little more sweat-equity, it has other perks. As you rake leaves, you also de-thatch any built up spots in your lawn. Unless you have bagging options on your motorized equipment, the humble rake has to step in to finish the job anyway.

The other perk of using a rake is that you can create fabulous piles for the kids to jump in.

Every kid’s favourite Fall pastime – Jumping in leaf piles!

Enjoy playing in the leaves this Fall!